Typically, the start-up operation of a numerically controlled machine tool includes the activation or start-up of control circuits of individual servo drives which form a part of the machine tool. An example of this is described in German Pat. No. 23 62 961. Problems arise, however, in trying to make the most effective use of (i.e., optimizing) the control parameters, such as, gain and adjustment time, of the drive control system as a whole according to the prescribed adjustment procedures of the individual controls. Such optimizing requires qualified service personnel to perform the adjustments which take a relatively long period of time because of the usual structure of cascaded control loops in a drive control system. More importantly, there cannot be complete assurance all the time that the optimum control parameters are actually set so as to make certain that the drive control system is optimally utilized statically and dynamically.
It is an object of the present invention to describe a method for the automatic optimization of drive controls and, thus, the drive control system.
It is a further object of the present invention to describe a method which uses any existing idle computing capacity of the overall machine tool control system for the start-up and automatic optimization of drive controls.